Individual Post #1

Even though the Chinese comprised of less than two percent of Jamaica’s population, they ran small Chinese grocery stores, also known as “Chiney shops” (Goffe, 2020, pp. 97–98). The Chiney shops were locations where Jamaicans and Chinese people could buy food and develop relationships leisurely (Goffe, 2020, pp. 98–99). Because of the environment of the Chiney shops, people were able to be creative, which led to the development of the soundsystem (Goffe, 2020, p. 103). Because of the soundsystem, soundscapes could be used to examine how the extracolonial relationships between the Jamaicans and Chinese developed naturally, even though British colonialism did not intend on creating these relationships (Goffe, 2020, p. 103). Goffe describes the relationships that are developed between the Chinese and the Jamaicans as “extracolonial conduits of sociality and creativity” (Goffe, 2020, p. 98). Music was used as a form of defiance against British colonialism and enhanced Jamaican culture, leading to a common mentality and basis for their relationship as they began to work together to create music (Goffe, 2020, pp. 104–125). British imperialism intended to strengthen British power in other countries through racialization and maintaining racial tensions between different ethnic groups (Goffe, 2020, p. 125). Therefore, even though British imperialism would have preferred racial divisions among the Chinese and Jamaicans to strengthen their own power, sound was a tool that helped create their extracolonial relationship.

Although the soundscape allowed extracolonial relationships between the Jamaicans and the Chinese to be formed, the effects of capitalism proved to be harmful. As explained by Gilmore, racial capitalism is an economic system that depends on a racial hierarchy and deepens racial divides (2:52–3:14). There were even racial tensions between the Chinese and the Jamaicans because the Chiney shops were perceived to be “unfairly profiting from black people” (Goffe, 2020, p. 125). The capitalist system delineated by the British successful strained the relationship between the Chinese and the Jamaicans, which ultimately strengthened the power that the British had over Jamaica. Even though racial capitalism serves to divide racial groups, there are instances when extracolonial activities occurred in the economy. For instance, there were Chinese shopkeepers who offered credit to the working-class Jamaicans who bought from their stores (Goffe, 2020, p. 104). The system of credit represented the trust that was developed from the relationship between the Chinese shopkeepers and the Black customers (Goffe, 2020, p. 104). Capitalism makes the relationship between the Chinese and Jamaicans more complicated, but there exist of extracolonial examples of trust between the two racial groups.

Chinatowns were established on a basis of anti-Asian sentiment and policies that forced the Chinese to live in a location of “national and local culture of exclusion” (Quintana, 2010, para. 2). Honolulu’s Chinatown consisted of a diverse community of Asians who traveled to America because of racial capitalism (Matsumura, 2021, p. 9). The Asian workers existed in an economic system that supported White capitalists who owned sugar cane plantations and depended on their exploitation (Matsumura, 2021, p. 9). Because many Asian laborers went to Honolulu’s Chinatown to find work, there was economic competition between them and the Hawaiians, which prevented them from building beneficial relationships like the Chinese and Jamaicans were able to do with music (Matsumura, 2021, p. 9). By examining the impact of sound, it is important for people to be able to build relationships based on a common interest, because the sources of division (money, race, etc.) are powerful enough to maintain racial divides. If the Asians in Honolulu’s Chinatown had a common interest, maybe they could have been able to have solidarity and realize that they had a common enemy of White capitalism.